Improvement in tanning



UNITED STATES PATENT] OFFICE.

JEREMIAH WONDER, OF TRUOKSVILLE, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND LORING A ROBERTSON, OF DUNN ING, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT lN TANNING.

Specification forming part of Letters PatentNo. 41,666, dated February 16, 1864.

To all whom it may concern:-

Be it known that I, JEREMIAH WONDER, of Trucksville, in the county of Luzerne and State of Pennsylvania, have invented and applied to use a certain new and useful Improvement in Tanning,- and Idohereby declare the followin g to be a full, clear, and exact descrip- -preferred on that account to the hemlocktanned leather, although, aside from the color, the leather itselfis very nearly equal in quality, whether tanned by the one bark or the other.

The nature of my said invention consists in the addition to the tanning-matter of substances that will neutralize or partially neutralize the coloring-matter of the hemlock-bark, and thereby render the leather of a lighter or fairer color. For this purpose I employ bran, cracked or crushed oats, corn, wheat, or similar vegetable matter, which I applyin the tanvats to the tanning-liquor; or I mix the same with the dry bark in the necessary proportion. If hemlock-bark alone is used, the proportion ofthis vegetable matter must be greater than when oak and hemlock bark are mixed, and where cracked oats or grain is employed the proportion will require to be less than where bran is employed. Potatoes crushed or barley growth might be used. I have found that about two barrels of bran to an ordinary tanvat of seven by nine feet and four feet deep will be about the correct proportion. When this vegetable matter has remained in the tanning liquid .for two or three days a visible change will have been elfectetkwhich will be apparent on tasting the liquid or examining its color. The leather tanned in this liquid will be found to be of a lighter and fairer color than it would have been had said vegetable matter not been employed, and the quality of the leather will not be injured thereby.

Thisimprovement may be applied With heinlock-bark alone, or where any other tanningmatter is mixed with it.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The employmentof the substances herein specified, in connection with hemlock-tan, for the purposes and as specified.

. In witness whereof I hate hereunto set my signature this 28th day of October, 1863.

JEREMIAH \VONDER.

Witnesses:

S. S. WELOH, N. L. WALKER. 

